Congressional hearings were the talk of the town this week in D.C. as top Trump administration officials came before House and Senate committees to testify on immigration enforcement and the Epstein files; four members of the New Jersey delegation got the chance to ask questions of officials like acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The week also included big news on Department of Homeland Security funding, the Gateway Project, and the celebration of the United States Semiquincentennial. Here’s some of what New Jersey’s members of Congress did in Washington this week.
The Lyons won’t sleep tonight
When Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, came before the House Homeland Security Committee – a hearing that was called after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by DHS officers – Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) had some questions for him about the afterlife.
“How do you think Judgement Day will work for you, with so much blood on your hands?” McIver asked Lyons. “I’m not going to entertain that question,” Lyons responded; he also declined to respond to McIver’s question on whether he thinks he’s going to hell.
During her turn to question Lyons, Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) noted her own background as a Latina, and asked whether ICE might racially profile someone like her.
“If I wasn’t wearing my member pin, would me being a Latina, or speaking Spanish, be enough for ICE agents to harass me or shove me into your unmarked cars?” she asked; Lyons insisted it would not.
And in the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s equivalent hearing two days later, Senator Andy Kim asked whether ICE’s Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis – which, that same day, Border Czar Tom Homan announced would be winding down – could be replicated in other states like New Jersey.
“If you pull out from Minnesota, but then you do a similar type of surge, 2,000, 3,000 [officers] in another state – is that something you’d still consider after what occurred in Minnesota?” Kim asked. Lyons did not commit to anything one way or the other, which Kim said after the hearing shows why DHS is in need of changes.
“Without some type of real reform and change codified in law, they’re just going to move that surge and go after some other state and some other city,” Kim said.
Will ICE be coming to NewYorkNewJersey?
Also brought up during Rep. Pou’s line of questioning: the 2026 World Cup, which will begin this summer and will have several key matches played at the MetLife Stadium in Pou’s district. Would ICE operations, Pou asked, interfere with those attending the matches from other countries?
In a follow-up letter sent on Thursday, Pou and Rep. McIver requested an emergency hearing “on whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities threaten the success of FIFA World Cup matches being held in the United States this summer.”
“DHS’s out-of-control operations in Minneapolis and refusal to guarantee a safe and secure World Cup free of militant ICE operations jeopardize the safety of the general public, put the security of foreign travelers at risk, and erode the United States’ reputation as a welcoming host,” the Democrats wrote to Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chairman of the task force overseeing World Cup security.
The partial government shutdowns will continue until it’s just one guy getting furloughed over and over
For the third time in the last six months, a government shutdown has begun – but only at the DHS.
That’s because, as part of the government funding agreement reached in January, DHS only got funding for an additional two weeks; the change was intended to give more time for Democrats and Republicans to negotiate reforms to the agency after the Minneapolis shootings. But those negotiations haven’t produced a breakthrough, with demands from each side being dismissed as unworkable by the other, and Congress left town without a solution.
Senator Kim, who was among the minority of Senate Democrats who opposed even the initial two-week funding extension, said that he has not felt that the Trump administration has made a serious attempt to come to table and work on real reforms.
“It’s all about the White House. Republicans in Congress have really abdicated any role in this negotiation,” Kim said. “The White House has, at least to me, not demonstrated any real willingness, or substantive engagement, to take the concrete reforms needed that the American people are demanding.”
Both the House and Senate are scheduled to be on recess next week – some members, among them Kim, are in Germany for the Munich Security Conference – so the DHS shutdown may not be over any time soon.
How is Gateway faring, stranger?
Funding for the Gateway Tunnel looks like it will soon be able to get back on track, but the court battle over the Trump administration’s efforts to freeze the project may continue into the foreseeable future.
A federal judge ruled last week that the project’s billions of dollars in federal funding, which have been in limbo since President Donald Trump announced the project was “terminated” last fall, must resume flowing; her ruling is being appealed to the Second Circuit, but the appeals court declined to issue a stay in the meantime. Yesterday, the Gateway Development Commission announced that it had received the first $30 million of unfrozen funds, and that it is working to resume construction “as soon as possible.”
Trump has given a shifting series of explanations for the freeze, from a review of “unconstitutional DEI principles” to a demand that his name be placed on New York Penn Station and Dulles Airport, which the Democratic elected officials working to restore the funding have been happy to note.
“I have a simple Jersey message for [Trump],” Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) said at a press conference yesterday after the funds resumed. “If he thinks that his name on a building is more important than these thousand men and women showing up every single day, I urge him to come here to New Jersey, look them in the eye, and tell them their future, our country’s future, is less important to him than him getting his name on a building. I guarantee you he will not.”
Pam, a lot
Todd Lyons wasn’t the only Trump administration official to come to Capitol Hill this week; Attorney General Bondi testified on Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, where Democrats grilled her on the administration’s handling of the Epstein files and any number of other controversies.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), a Judiciary Committee member and the chair of one of its subcommittees, has been more willing than some members of his party to push the Trump administration for more transparency on the Epstein files. But when it came time for him to question Bondi, he focused instead on what he said were the failures of the prior Democratic administration.
“For years, on the other side of the aisle, we heard nothing – crickets, not a word, nothing was said when they were in control,” Van Drew said. “Then we get a new administration, and all of a sudden, it’s a big deal, they feign concern, they’re upset, they’re investigating. They’ve had all these years and all this time.”
Van Drew proceeded to ask Bondi a number of questions about whether she believed “removing criminal aliens” from the United States was of utmost importance; she said it was.
Semiquincentennialisticexpialidocious
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing)’s efforts to have the nation properly celebrate its Semiquincentennial – a.k.a. its 250th birthday – took a major step forward in the House this week.
Watson Coleman, a member of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission whose district contains a number of important Revolutionary War sites, led or co-led two bills that passed the House on voice votes: one to issue a new collectible $2.50 coin, and another to bury a time capsule in the Capitol Visitor Center, to be opened on the date of the country’s 500th anniversary. The latter bill is on President Trump’s desk, while the former still has to make its way through the Senate.
“As a co-founder and co-chair of the America250 Caucus, I’m proud to see this legislation move forward as a part of our nation’s 250th anniversary,” Watson Coleman said of the time capsule bill. “None of us will be here when this capsule is opened. That is the point. Our responsibility is to the generations who will inherit the consequences of our choices.”
“What we do in this chamber every day is history,” she continued. “What we choose to speak up for, and speak out against, it defines us – and it will be the legacy we leave for every governing body that holds this space for years to come.”
Oh, Canada
The House also passed a pair of far more contentious bills this week: one to undo President Trump’s tariffs on Canada, and another to implement strict new voter ID requirements.
Six Republicans broke with their party on the tariff vote, but none were from New Jersey; the resolution echoes a number of similar efforts, some of them successful, in the Senate to reign in Trump’s tariff agenda, though the president can just veto any resolution that passes both chambers of Congress.
“Hard-working Jersey families shouldn’t be blindsided by higher prices from President Trump’s reckless tariffs – they don’t need a new $1,700 tariff tax slapped on top of everything else,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) said. “These tariffs have jacked up prices on everyday goods and have punished our small businesses and their customers. That’s not tough on trade – it’s tough on Jersey families. Enough is enough.”
As for the voter ID bill, the SAVE America Act, New Jersey’s eight Democrats were united in opposition. Given how opposed Democrats are to the bill in general, it is likely to die in the Senate, just like its prior incarnation did during the last session of Congress.
“The SAVE America Act ensures that only U.S. citizens participate in our federal elections,” Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) said. “I support this commonsense legislation to protect election integrity and strengthen confidence in our democratic process.”
Other Garden State plots
• An ICE operation at an apartment complex in Lindenwold caused panic and chaos at a nearby school bus stop, a result that the town’s local congressman, Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), said is unacceptable.
“I am outraged by reports coming out about the ICE operation in Lindenwold,” Norcross said. “Their tactics and lack of transparency have instilled fear in the community and have put children in harm’s way. Schoolchildren are not criminals, and enforcement actions must reflect that.”
• Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) introduced a pair of bills this week: one to require the Secretary of State to report on religious persecution in Nigeria, and another to codify the LymeX Accelerator Program, a public-private partnership aimed at preventing and treating Lyme Disease.
“Over the past four years, LymeX has been a beacon of hope for the millions of Lyme patients throughout the United States – including and especially in my home state of New Jersey – by engaging a variety of private and public sector stakeholders to advance Lyme disease diagnostics and treatments, ultimately in an effort to find a lasting cure,” Smith said of the latter bill. “It is well past time that Congress codify this vital program, which has already made incredible headway in Lyme disease therapeutics and diagnostic criteria.”
• Rep. Van Drew announced yesterday that the DHS has officially approved the $24.3 million Cape May City Seawall Flood Mitigation Project.
“This is a major breakthrough for Cape May and for our entire shoreline,” Van Drew said. “This section of Cape May was identified after Hurricane Sandy as a serious weak point, and that vulnerability has not gone away. The next major storm is not a matter of if, but a matter of when. This seawall project is making sure we are not caught unprepared.”
• Rep. Gottheimer and Senator Cory Booker are co-leading bipartisan legislation to create new seatbelt standards for school buses and establish stricter background checks for school bus drivers; the latter bill is named in honor of Miranda Vargas, a 10-year-old Paramus student who was killed in a 2018 school bus crash.
“Stories like Miranda’s are heartbreaking, and Congress must act to set national bus safety standards so tragedies like this never happen again,” Booker said. “I will continue to fight in Washington to pass legislation that ensures every child in America is safe while riding the bus to school.”
